A. In Season
one, Episode 1, "The Pilot", when Ryan is arrested
by the Chino police, after his ne'er-do-well brother (Trey) forces
him to participate in a car theft.
His older brother goes to prison. Ryan, with a cleaner record, ends up
in Juvenile Hall.

Sandy Cohen
(his court-appointed lawyer) meets him there for the first time, goes over
Ryan's record, and asks him about his plans for the future. He doesn't
have any.

As they are
leaving, Ryan's angry mother pulls up in a car, yells at Ryan, and makes
him come with her. Before he does, Sandy gives Ryan his phone number, suggesting
he call him if things get worse. (He does, later, from a pay phone
in "Chino".)

Q.
What is it actually in real life?

A. A former
jail for women.

Q.
Where can I find it in real life?

A. It is the
Sybil Brand Institute, formerly the L.A. County jail
for women.

It is located
in East L.A., at 4500 E. City Terrace Drive,
in Monterey Park. (That's near the intersection of the Long Beach
(710) and the San Bernardino (10) freeways - over 25 miles
west of the real Chino.)

The brick building
we see is near the southwest corner of the jail compound. (Ryan
is facing west in the middle photo above. In the bottom photo, we are looking
south.)

The jail has
been closed since 1994 (due to earthquake damage) and is now used exclusively
for filming. It was named after Sybil Brand, a woman who crusaded for prison
reform.

The view in
the photo is slightly blocked by white trucks parked outside the building.
Ironically, those appear to be movie trucks & trailers (note the white
tent) - they may have actually been filming "The O.C." there
when this aerial photo was taken.

(Note that this
is not the same prison yard seen in later episodes when Ryan visits
Trey in prison. This is a smaller, less formidable jail.)

A list of other
O.C. locations supposedly in set in "Chino" can be found
here.

Q.
How the heck did you figure out where it was?

A. I didn't.
It was one of the few locations I originally overlooked. Fortunately, 'diz',
one of a group
of O.C. fans from Italy, found it (perhaps by asking the pilot's production
designer), and they emailed me (in June 2006) to let me know where it was.
Thanks, guys. (Grazie!)